Syracuse Crunch

We continue our Prospect of the Week award, an honor (virtually) given to one Tampa Bay Lightning prospect for their recent contributions on and off the ice.

The Prospect of the Week for March 4 is … Ondrej Palat, W, Syracuse (AHL – USA).

Ondrej Palat liked being Prospect of the Week so much he did it again.

The Syracuse Crunch winger had his first career hat trick this past week, scoring three goals on Tuesday against Rochester. He was named first star for the Crunch in their 4-1 win. After a scoreless game against Albany on Friday, Palat had a power play goal in Syracuse’s overtime loss on Saturday.

In a game filled with shots ringing off the posts and pucks sliding through the Rochester Americans' crease, the Crunch could have made plenty of excuses after the 2-1 overtime loss Saturday night at the Onondaga County War Memorial.

"There's a few posts and a few shots that popped up on us or whatever, but the bottom line is we didn't bear down when we had the chance," said Crunch forward Tyler Johnson. "They did."

Ondrej Palat was the game's second star. Palat has 5 goals and 13 points in his last 8 games. I believe that technically qualifies as "on fire". With Benoit Pouliot possibly hurt in today's game against Boston, I wonder if Palat might be worthy of some consideration for a cup of coffee.

Despite controlling the play for the first 40 minutes, the Syracuse Crunch entered the third period in a scoreless tie.

The Crunch led the Albany Devils in shots, 26-11, and rang several shots off the pipes behind netminder Jeff Frazee, but were unable to land the proverbial knockout blow.

Albany countered with a pair of goals one minute apart in the third to upend Syracuse, 3-1, at the Onondaga County War Memorial Friday night. The loss snaps an eight-game winning streak for the Crunch, who still pace the Eastern Conference with 74 points.

"I thought we played well enough to win, but we had a few mistakes that cost us," said Syracuse forward Brett Connolly. "That was the difference in the game."

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 1 goal on 27 shots for the win. He came within 1:35 of his third straight shutout when Bolt Prospects Alumni Nick Tarnasky stuck the shiv in his former organization's farm team.

Ondrej Palat, Desjardins, and Tyler Johnson were the game's three stars. Palat's hat trick moved him into the top-20 in the AHL in scoring, tied with 2 others for 16th at 43 points. Johnson's 53 points are now tops in the league and Brett Connolly is tied for 4th at 49 points.

The scoring is nice, and it makes everyone feel good, but the defense and goaltending is what really should scare every other team in the AHL. Syracuse has run their winning streak out to 8 games now, and when this organization went on the tear it did last year in Norfolk, it was just as much about stifling defense and solid goaltending as it was about glitzy scoring. Syracuse's 190 goals lead the AHL pretty comfortably, but the big thing to watch now is whether they can start to catch up to teams like Bingo and Springfield in goals against. History tells us that when Coach Cooper has it all in place, his teams are extremely stingy.

Desjardins, Tyler Johnson (pictured), and Ondrej Palat were the game's three stars. Johnson currently sits 1 point behind Grover Nyquist of Grand Rapids for the top spot in the league in scoring and Brett Connolly is 4 back of Nyqvist in a tie for 5th in the league. Johnson also leads the league in goals and Palat is tied for 2nd in the league in assists, 2 back of leader Jeff Taffe of Hershey.

After scoring just 2 points in the entire month of January, Mark Barberio has 11 so far in February.

With Springfield getting thumped by Worcester today, Syracuse extends their Eastern Conference lead to 5 points over the Falcons and Senators with the Falcons hold 2 games in hand. Syracuse will go for 8 straight on Tuesday against Rochester.